Blenders (Battery-Powered)

Published September 1, 2008.
From Cook's Illustrated.

Useful maybe for outdoors, could this blender compare to a countertop model?

Overview:

We thought a portable blender could be useful for car camping or backyard bartending, so we charged the battery, crushed some ice, and blended up milk shakes and margaritas in the Coleman Rechargeable Portable Blender, which runs on rechargeable batteries or plugs into a car lighter.

The very loud motor was powerful enough, but the poorly designed, hand-wash only jar didn’t taper sufficiently. Margaritas fared better than thick milk shakes (these required multiple scrapedowns), but the crevices still trapped food away from the blade, which struggled to crush ice and chop large chunks of frozen strawberries. Still, our tasters deemed the results good enough for a camping trip (though maybe not a backyard barbecue), and the long-lasting battery charge was impressive. In sum, this is no replacement for your home blender, but works well enough for making simple frozen drinks or smoothies outdoors.

We thought a portable blender could be useful for car camping or backyard bartending, so we charged the battery, crushed some ice, and blended up milk shakes and margaritas in the Coleman Rechargeable Portable Blender, which runs on rechargeable batteries or plugs into a car lighter.

The very loud motor was powerful enough, but the poorly designed, hand-wash only jar didn’t taper sufficiently. Margaritas fared better than thick milk shakes (these required multiple scrapedowns), but the crevices still trapped food away from the blade, which struggled to crush ice and chop large chunks of frozen strawberries. Still, our tasters deemed the results good enough for a camping trip (though maybe not a backyard barbecue), and the long-lasting battery charge was impressive. In sum, this is no replacement for your home blender, but works well enough for making simple frozen drinks or smoothies outdoors.

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